London Welsh coach Lyn Jones praised debutant Gavin Henson's performance in Sunday's 28-23 Premiership defeat to Saracens.
Henson, who fractured his cheekbone in a pre-season match against former club Scarlets, added 13 points via two conversions and three penalties.
Jones, who handed the Wales international his debut in place of veteran former Scotland fly-half Gordon Ross said he was impressed with Henson's effort.
"I thought for his first game back in God knows how long, his performance was very good," he said.
"He was hugely influential.
"Gordon has been brilliant for us all season and he really deserved a rest."
Jones conceded that his team were lucky to gain a bonus-point for losing by less than seven points as Saracens failed to capitalise on the lion's share of possession which they had.
"To play as badly as we did and come away with a losing bonus point is a plus," he said.
"Saracens are a quality side and they played very well today."
But he was unhappy with referee Luke Pearce's decision to end the match with the Exiles' forwards on the attack close to Sarries' try-line after the visitors had already conceded three penalties in a row while trying to prevent their opponents from scoring.
"I didn't think it was right to finish the game on an incomplete scrum," explained Jones.
"We had seven reds going forward and one was taken to the floor."
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall praised veteran fly-half Charlie Hodgson, who scored all his side's points.
Regular pivot Owen Farrell moved to inside centre as McCall rested several players including first-choice backs Brad Barritt, Alex Goode and Chris Ashton.
"Charlie was great today," said McCall.
Charlie and Owen combined well."
After Northampton and Harlequins suffered surprise losses against Exeter and London Irish respectively Saracens have moved to within two points of the Saints at the top of the table.
"Those two games are an illustration of how hard this competition can be," said McCall.
"We are round about where we want to be in the Premiership. We have rotated the squad sensibly in the first six games and we are fresh."
Comments
jontheref says...
The scrum is incomplete, you cannot end on an incomlete scrum.
If there had been a PK, FK it would have gone on.
If there had been a knock on, requiring another scrum, he could have called time.
He cannot call time on an incomplete scrum.
Ref looked out of his comfort zone, but new refs have to start somewhere.
As long as he gets constructive criticism he will improve. But I doubt that happens!
Italian guy in Cardiff game was far more out of his depth.
Posted 08:17 09th October 2012
NHSaints says...
@damo the scrum collapsed, on a call of reset after time with no penalty advantage I believe the ref is required to end the game.
Posted 18:08 08th October 2012
melkdave says...
Well it was a decent debut from Henson,and a wonder pass for LWs 2nd try,shows he still has vision,needs to work on a few things though.Not everything he did/tried was up to scratch imo.It does show also that the gap between premiership and championship sides isnt that great either,as LW are competative ,that bodes well for the future of english rugby.Two leagues producing good players cant be bad.
Posted 10:21 08th October 2012
damo says...
Great debut, why did ref blow full time mid scrum??? Never aseen that before
Posted 22:20 07th October 2012